You seem to be concerned about the paralysis of the bowels due to pain medications.

There is no complete paralysis of the bowel after long periods of pain medication intake but constipation may be there due to increased tone of the colon; spasms of the pyloric, ileocecal and anal sphincters; a decrease in GI secretions and central action causing inattention to the defecation reflex as a result of opioid drug action.

Not all pain medications cause constipation. Pain medications such as morphine and codeine derivatives will cause constipation. A side effect of these pain medications is that they slow the gastro-intestinal tract but if the pain medication is taken for a very short amount of time this shouldn't be a major concern. People with chronic pain may find that the chronic pain medications cause chronic constipation. Also, the use of narcotics like opiates in your case may be responsible for chronic constipation. No tolerance develops to this action and morphine addicts remain chronically constipated.

Increasing the fluid intake, increasing fiber intake and drinking or eating items such as prune juice or prunes will often prevent the constipation due to medication from occurring. If the constipation due to medications is not relieved by these simple measures, the physician should be consulted.
Hope this helps.Take care.

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